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Every spring I try to finish all the items in my pantry before replenishing my stock. Like many other foodies, I sometimes buy unusual ingredients for one specific recipe, or fall in love with the package of an ingredient and some rarely used ingredient start to fill in my pantry… As I hate throwing food I always try to use or recycle all the food and leftovers, which sometimes reveals to be an interesting cooking challenge…

This process has led me to the discovery of some forgotten treasures that I am planning to use in the upcoming weeks, such as amaranth flour, smoked salt, smoked paprika, edible dry lavender, and these very girly pink pralines…

Pink Pralines are almonds coated in a thick layer of sugar, coloured with a bright funky pink!

As such, they are pretty hard and do not taste much. They are often prepared in tarte aux pralines (a very, very sweet dessert, because, it is basically only melted pralines on a short pastry crust) or in brioches aux pralines.

I thought of using them as streusel topping to decorate raspberry muffins; the outcome was really delicious: the crushed pralines streusel brought crispiness and sweetness to the slightly tangy taste of the raspberries, which made each bite very pleasant!

.Ingredients for about 10 muffins (medium size)

80g sugar

60g butter

2 eggs

100g yogurt

130g flour

1 pinch salt

7 g baking powder

50g white choco chips

100g raspberries

For the topping:

20g butter

20g flour

50g pralines, crushed

10g sugar

20g almonds, slivered

Method:

Start by preparing the crumble topping, by mixing all the crumble ingredients with your fingers. Keep aside.

Preheat the oven at 180°C.

Mix sugar and butter until the mixture becomes fluffy.

Add the eggs, one by one and mix well.

Add the yogurt and chocolate chips.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Sift into the mixture.

Add the raspberries and stir briefly.

Pour into the muffins baking tins, until a little less than 3/4 are filled.

Can you feel it? It is all around us… the decorations in the streets… the glittering lights… the snow (well, that depends where you are…) the festive season is starting … I can nearly smell cinammon and gingerbread in the air… It is time to bake, bake , bake… lots of biscuits, cookies and other sweet treats…

This year, I have decided to bake festive cookies from other regions of the world, along with the traditional Christmas cookies. Starting with ma’amoul, the delicious middle-eastern kind of shortbreads, filled with nuts.

Ma’amoul are prepared in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, with some variations in each country. The one I have prepared today have walnuts and rose water,which might be a typical Syrian touch: indeed, as explained here, many walnut trees can be found around Damascus in Syria, that is why the ma’amoul from Damascusare usually made with walnuts, whereas the ma’amoul from the Aleppo region are filled with pistachios, more easily available in that region. Of course, there are many other variations: dates, sesame seeds, mixed nuts…

Similarly, they can be flavoured with orange blossom water or rose water, or both together. I chose rose water, because to me, the rosa damascena is almost a mythical flower…

ingredients for about 30 ma’amoulsrecipe from Anissa Helou, with some changes, her original recipe is : hereThe part in italics is directly quoted from Anissa’s blog link above.

Add the butter , mix well with your fingers. Add the rose water and knead until it forms a firm, easy to manage dough. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Mix the ground walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and the rose water in another bowl.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator.

Take a piece of dough, the size of a walnut. Place it in the cup of your hand and with your index finger, burrow into it to shape it into a hollow cone. Be careful not to pierce the bottom. The cone walls should be about 5 mm thick. Fill the pastry cone with 1 teaspoon walnut filling and pinch the dough together to close it over the filling.

Place the ball into the ma’amoul mould (how does a ma’amoul mould look like? click here) or if like me you don’t have any, shape it by placing it into a small mould or a spoon. I used small square tin moulds that used to belong to my dear Grand Dad. Invert the mould and put the ma’amoul on a baking tray, covered with parchment paper.

You can press a fork on top of them to draw some pattern. (I used a decorating tube!!)
Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until they start to become very slightly golden.

Risotto is one of my favourite rice dishes. One of the reason is that it is an endless source of inspiration, as so many different ingredients can be added… Forget about mushrooms and saffran, try granny smith apple and leek, hazelnut and pumkin or… a very simple but festive one: try to replace the white wine with champagne, and accompany it with an unusual pesto: rose petals and walnuts… Last Saturday was my hubby’s birthday, so Champagne was definitely the perfect ingredient for a romantic dinner…

Prepare the pesto: As I did not have fresh organic roses, I used dried ones, which turned out to be as good as the fresh ones… (and, yes, I am a rose eater…) Remove the green part of the roses and soak them in lukewarm water, with a few drop of lemon juice for 5 minutes. Blend the walnuts, pink pepper, salt and oil into a paste. Add the drained roses and blend quickly, so that the petals are still visible. Keep the pesto aside.
Heat the oil and butter in a non-stick pot. Add the finely chopped shallot and fry on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the rice, stirring well, so that it is coated with the oil/butter. Keep on stirring until the rice becomes translucent.
Pour the glass of champagne and stir well, until all liquid is absorbed. Add the bay leaf and slowly add the stock. As soon as the liquid is absorbed, add some more stock. Stir continuously, taking care that the rice does not stick to the pot. I usually remove the bay leaf after about 10 minutes, because I don’t like when its taste becomes too noticeable in the dish.
After 18-20 minutes, all the stock should be absorbed. Remove the pot from the heat and add the parmeggiano cheese and pepper. Stir well. Check the seasoning. As stock and parmeggiano are quite salty, I never put salt before the end and, most of the time, I do not need to add any at all.

Serve with one spoon of rose & walnut pesto on the top of each servings.

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Sweet Artichoke is about my vegetarian culinary experiments, mainly
exploring Indian, Italian and other world cuisines, as well as organic and healthy food, with creativity, passion and definitely, a sweet tooth :-)

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ABOUT ME

Sweet Artichoke

Working in an international NGO by day, passionate baker and creative cook at night and weekends...
My vegetarian recipes are inspired by my Italian & French origins, my Bengali hubby, my travels to the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean regions...
I am enjoying preparing healthy food as well as discovering some truly decadent desserts,
And...
I love artichokes!!
sweetartichoke@gmail.com